STA, 16 January 2020 - Bird Buddy, a project of a smart bird feeder created by a predominately Slovenian team, has raised a total of EUR 4.19 million on Kickstarter, the global crowdfunding platform, thus becoming the most successful Slovenian project by far.
So far the most successful Slovenian campaign on Kickstarter was for electric bike Flykly, which collected around US$700,000 (EUR 570,000).
The goal of the Bird Buddy was to raise EUR 50,000, but the project raised EUR 700,000 in a matter of days.
As the campaign ended, the smart bird feeder became the 35th most successful Kickstarter project overall, according to information on the project's website.
The project that convinced a total of 22,924 supporters envisages a modern design bird feeder with a feed container and a detachable module that includes a small video camera with a microphone and a movement sensor.
Detecting the arrival of a bird, the sensor notifies the user by means of a wireless connection and a mobile app. The app also allows the user to take a photo of the bird.
Equipped with artificial intelligence, the app recognizes over 1,000 bird species. It can also recognise the bird when it hears it sing.
The app also makes it possible to organise and share bird photographs and offers advice on which feed is suitable for which species of birds.
Production of Bird Buddies is planned to start in mid-2021 and they are expected to be supplied to users in September 2021.
The team behind the project said that if they collected more than EUR 750,000, users would be offered the option of a sensor to notify them when the feed container is empty, and at EUR 950,000 a solar cell to charge the camera module battery would be added.
